Rootstock Evaluation for European and Japanese Plums in Italy

The continuous update coming from fruit trees genetic improving projects determines constant innovations in terms of cultivars and rootstocks availability. In Italy, since 1995, the National Government has developed a research activity spread over the entire National territory. The project, which involves several Research Units, is related to all major fruit tree species and also plum regarding new Japanese and European cultivars as well as new rootstocks. The evaluation is performed by using the same experimental protocol, focusing on the vegetative and reproductive traits as well as on all aspects related to fruit quality. This paper shows data collected since the planting in 1995 from few Research Units. Promising results have been provided by the ‘GF 677’ both in terms of yield and vigour as well as from ‘Penta’ and ‘Tetra’, the first with lower vigor and qualitative fruit traits. Although many differences are evidenced between the different locations, this Project annually allows to constantly update the results and to make a list of the recommended and promising rootstocks but also of those genotypes that showed a not good adaptation for the plum cultivation